Superman is one of the only major superheroes nowadays that doesn’t have a hit video game. The Batman Arkham series of video games has garnered a huge fan base after the initial title, Batman Arkham Asylum, redefined what a Batman game could be. 2018’s Spider-Man has quickly become one of the most successful single game releases of all time and will more than likely get sequels. Additionally, Marvel’s Avengers is finally coming out on consoles later this year and is shaping up to be a great-looking game.
Indeed, Superman seems to be left out of the superhero video game resurgence as of late and, worse yet, still only has a collection of mediocre games attached to him from over 10 years ago. This isn’t to say that he hasn’t been in any good games recently at all, as the Injustice series of fighting games is still highly acclaimed. It’s just that Superman never seems to have gotten his due in the gaming world.
It’s only because of Rocksteady Studio’s several year absence from the public eye (not counting Batman Arkham VR) that a hope for a new Superman title even exists. Rocksteady’s last game, Batman Arkham Knight, was released in 2015 meaning the studio is taking its time in announcing its next game which many fans have theorized could be a Superman or DC Universe game.
Although the studio has denied this, it still hasn’t hinted at what its next project is, unlike WB Games Montreal which has been teasing a Batman game for months. WB hasn’t revealed that game yet either meaning fans will have to stick to rumors, shady or not. In any case, here is every major rumor of a new Superman game to date.
Video Game DC Universe 2020
Little more than a month has passed since 2020 started, yet new rumors of a Superman game have already started to pop up online. More information on WB Games Montreal’s next Batman game was supposedly leaked by Geeks WorldWide. Among some new gameplay and story elements, the leak suggests that WB Games Montreal is actually using this new Batman project to kick off a new interconnected DC Universe for video games, similar to how the movies are. The leak also implied that the Montreal studio is also developing a new Superman game to be a part of this newly established universe.
Another supposed leak from this year suggested that not only is Rocksteady developing a new Superman game of some sort, but that the game would be an Xbox Series X exclusive. There might be some credibility to this rumor, but it seems unlikely that WB would do something like that.
No Superman - 2019
In 2019, rumors surrounding a new Superman game were fairly light. Some job listings for Rocksteady’s next generation title (and a random employee Twitter post) were found online and led to the rumors swirling back up again. More notably though, Twitter user James Sigfield posted some renders of the man of steel and also suggested that WB had been trying to put a new Superman game out since 2013 but to no success. Sigfield claimed that WB cancelled these projects due to them not meeting set standard, and he claims the same thing happened to a potential Suicide Squad game.
Superman World's Finest 2018
2018 was a key year in Superman rumors, as director Sefton Hill publicly and definitively confirmed via Twitter that Rocksteady isn’t working on a Superman game. This came after a bunch of other rumors that year that suggested that not only is Rocksteady working on Superman title but that it would be called Superman World’s Finest. Several different rumors backed this up the rumor and ended up being wrong, with some going so far as to claim that the new game would be three times as big as Batman Arkham Knight and would feature Brainiac as a main villain.
A Year of Fakes for Superman - 2017
The two major events that happened in 2017 involving Superman rumors were a Game Informer cover story and a job listing from WB Games Montreal. The job listing was for a technical director and, just like most job listings from notable developers, it caused new rumors to rise up when it was found. Immediately, people started to try and link the listings to a Superman game, a Batman game, and even the still rumored DC Universe game.
A rumor that year also suggested Game Informer would be featuring the rumored Rocksteady Superman game during one issue. When fans flocked to verify this with executive editor Andrew Reiner, he dismissed the Superman news as fake.
A cancelled Superman Open World Game - 2016
In 2016, a video from Did You Know Gaming? showed footage of a cancelled open-world Superman game that was initially intended to be a sequel to 2006’s Superman Returns, the last Superman game to be released on console. It was going to be developed by Factor 5 and would have potentially featured multiplayer. The video was notable for causing another wave of people to ask Rocksteady, which just put out Batman Arkham Knight the year before, for a new Superman game.
The Year It All Began - 2015
2015 was the year Rocksteady released Batman Arkham Knight and was the last year it had put out a new console game. Additionally, Rocksteady had inadvertently set itself up for Superman hype in two ways during that time. First, it had confirmed that Batman Arkham Knight would be the final game in the trilogy and that it would move on from the character. Second, it threw in many references to Superman and his world in its new game (which is expected). This led fans to believe that Rocksteady implied it was moving on to Superman.
Additionally, a leaked screenshot suggested some sort of Superman project was in the works but it ended up being fake. Before 2015, Rocksteady and WB Game Montreal were clearly busy with Batman so rumors of a new Superman game haven’t been as fervent as they were in later years. During the years before 2015, there was simply a general sentiment that Rocksteady should give Superman the same treatment that it gave Batman.
A new Superman game is rumored to be in development.